How Close Was Tainted Wheat To Human Food?

CBS News Learns Nothing But Luck Kept Suspect Wheat Gluten Out Of Food Supply

(CBS)  The FDA announced today that not all of the tainted pet food has been pulled from store shelves. And at a congressional hearing, an entirely new concern was raised: How close did contaminated ingredients come to getting into food for humans?

CBS News has learned that the tainted wheat gluten used in pet food was human grade — meaning nothing but luck kept it from being used in the food people eat, too, CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson reports.

Wheat gluten is added to foods like bread, pasta and rice. While the public was focused on the danger to their pets, sources tell CBS News that the FDA had tracked at least one suspect batch of wheat gluten into the human food supply, quietly quarantined some products and notified the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention to watch for new patients admitted to hospitals with renal or kidney failure.

"We didn't know at the time whether or not wheat gluten had made it into the human food supply," said Dr. Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine. "We asked CDC to put a special emphasis on looking at increased incidents of renal failure in people."

But there were no spikes in illnesses, and the human food ultimately tested clean. The FDA tried to comfort Congress today, saying there's "no evidence" any bad gluten got into human food — thought the agency still doesn't know where it all went.

"What disturbs me about this incident is that it confirms yet again that pet food as well as human food is at risk," said Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill.

Menu Foods, the food supplier that seems to have bought most of the problem ingredient, wouldn't testify today. The lobby group that came in its place was left to explain why Menu supposedly knew that tests were making animals sick on Feb. 20 but didn't tell the FDA until three weeks later.

"Let's get the record straight: Menu waited more than three weeks after finding out that the dogs wouldn't eat their food and were getting sick. They waited three weeks!" Durbin said.

"I don't have the facts on Menu, senator,' Duane Ekedahl of the Pet Food Institute testified.

"I think before you came to the hearing you would have the facts!" Durbin replied.

The FDA has gotten more than 19,000 phone calls, but today said it has "no good numbers" and that there's no way to tell how many animals have gotten sick.

[randalds]

And nobody wants that to be declared. The the military is in charge, no constitution, no rights, no Bill Of Rights, no Congress, no Judicial Branch. Only the Military and executive branches.
Posted by Klingon69 at 06:36 PM : Apr 13, 2007

A Bush/Cheney wet dream. Of course they already believe they're above the law so it wouldn't be a big change from their perspective.

[klingon69]

Goldesprit;
It's Martial Law.
And nobody wants that to be declared. The the military is in charge, no constitution, no rights, no Bill Of Rights, no Congress, no Judicial Branch. Only the Military and executive branches.

[long_rider]

I have all the confidence in the chimps appointees in the FDA, I am sure that they have the American peoples best interest at heart. You know, like the appointee who took care of New Orleans, the Justice Dept., the Dept of Energy, and so on.

The only terrorists cells we have to worry about are in Washington - the white house, and the rest of the govt. buildings.

This administration could care less if a few thousand more of us die. The only thing that really counts is that the chimp gets what he wants, screw America.

[goldesprit]

Watch out--human food scares are probably VERY attractive to some people that I don't even have to name at this point--because they are so obviously acting on their own twisted monetary and political short term behalf.

Look for this around election time--oops de doops.

Voila! Marshall law with big daddy Bush!

[sparkplug54]

It seems highly unreasonable to be importing food from China. With their huge population, they need what they produce to feed their own. American agriculture is known for high production and usually high quality, hence our export status. Why anyone in North America should EVER need to import a wheat product is beyond me.

I understand importing fruits and vegetables from South America, expecially Chile, as their growing seasons are the reverse of ours. They also seem to have high standards.

[randalds]

Perhaps when we the Bush administration leaves office we can get rid of all of the food and drup industry cronies in the FDA. Then they can back into the business of protecting the American people's food supply.


Posted by frankly6 at 10:25 PM : Apr 12, 2007

Bravo! Since the Bush administration has taken power they have slashed the budget for food inspectors in the FDA (who are supposed to inspect both human AND pet food) and staffed it with political appointees, most of them from the very industries they're supposed to inspect. He put the fox's in charge of the hen house and we are da*mn lucky that, as tragic as this story was, it didn't happen to human food first. All pet food sold in the US, by law, must be human grade. It must be safely consumable by humans, but the FDA dropped the ball big time because of lack of proper funding. Want to wait until they make the same mistake with baby food before you recognize the problem here?

[canaima]

I strongly agree with tultalk, and I second the comment:

"What an idiotic comment from frankly6."

[tultalk]

What an idiotic comment from frankly6.


"Perhaps when we the Bush administration leaves office we can get rid of all of the food and drup industry cronies in the FDA. Then they can back into the business of protecting the American people's food supply.

Posted by frankly6 at 10:25 PM : Apr 12, 2007"

[frankly6]

Perhaps when we the Bush administration leaves office we can get rid of all of the food and drup industry cronies in the FDA. Then they can back into the business of protecting the American people's food supply.

[shanev137]

oh ***...im sure my wife was hoping the next batch of pasta she made me for dinner would have killed me off.

[sankekorafi]

All I can say is thank goodness I'm a Celiac and therefore NEVER eat wheat gluten (although... I never thought I'd be grateful to have this horrible disease). I feel bad for all of these pets (luckily my own dog is perfectly fine, but I feel really bad for the owners of these dogs and cats. This must be horrible time for them.), and I hope that all of this contaminated food is outside of human consumption. Until then, those of us with gluten intolerance will live knowing that at least once this has turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

[erasmus6]

If they are going by whether anyone has been ill, as to there being any in our food, they need to think again. Animals are smaller and eat the same thing everyday. It would show up faster in them. We are a lot bigger and don't eat the same thing everyday, so therefore it would take a lot longer to show up in us.
And this wheat gluten thing is probably just the tip of the iceburg. I bet there are any number of things that are in our food, that shouldn't be there. When we are getting our food from other countries, we need to be constantly checking that food. I mean, think about it, what a better way to kill off our people, if that is what they wanted to do. And we all know that is what some people want to do.
Anyways, not everybody has the same regulations regarding the handling of food, so we need to be more careful.